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I re-read A PRINCESS OF MARS for the first time in 15-20 years. It has its problems, but on the whole the author respects the female characters. The green women do all the manufacturing for their people, everything from food to weaponry. Sola is strong and caretaking. Dejah Thoris is a strong personality in her own right, even if she is presented as a prize several times. There are prose problems. "Stole stealthily from the shadows" sticks out in my mind. But on the whole, a solid story and an enjoyable visit with old friends.

I just got Womanthology this week, which is an anthology of short comic-book stories done exclusively by female creators, including a handful of teenagers, some children, and a bunch of people which had never been published before. It began as a Kickstarter project that got its target funding in less than a day last year, and its first volume, Heroicjust got released this week, and while it can sometimes feel repetitive--there feels like there's a bunch of stories about the heroism inherent in everyday good deeds--the individual stories are all generally well done, and the overall package is amazing, if pricey in that worth-every-penny way but still expensive way.

I haven't read much, I haven't written much. I had a bad week, and wrote two posts about that. Initial post, and a follow up. I seem to be steadily improving.

I also watched a movie in which David Hasselhoff and his pet puma fight off a biker gang that has taken over his childhood hometown, in hopes it would take some of the edge off. It was about what you would expect from a movie in which David Hasselhoff and his pet puma fight off a biker gang. Watching it may very well have taken some of the edge off.

And then, since they were right there in the same volume, re-read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and NORTHANGER ABBEY.

Conclusion A: Jane Austen was *not* writing romance, post-apocalyptic or teen or with zombies or any other kind. She was writing about class and social change and gender relations and families (born and made) and about people, with all their minutely observed flaws and failings and foolishness.

Y'all already knew that, but it needs to be re-stated because

Conclusion B: Most Austen re-tellings and spinoffs and fanfiction do not seem to get this.

I started reading Simon Green's Nightside series, tales of a detective in a little pocket-world with every fantasy and mythological creature ever-- they're more settings-and-critters than plot, but the settings and critters are wonderfully creepy. Me likes.

And I have been writing a scene with a dragon. For three days. How hard could the scene be, you ask, when it should only be two pages and there's a dragon in it? All you have to do is get the right balance between "it could eat us" and "it probably won't" and then get on to the resolution which is all planned out, but it turns out that's HARD! Which I probably should have expected, but I didn't. The horrible prospect of story-fizzling-halfway-through is looming on my horizon. Must not give in!

I haven't been reading (other than blogs), though I've plans to read Burroughs' Mars novels out of curiosity after seeing John Carter. (Even if the best character in the movie is Kantos Kan. Who is so awesome.) I have been watching the Star Wars Clone Wars TV show. And facepalming so much I made a facepalm icon for my blog.

As for writing, I'm still working on my SW:TOR fan fic. Finishing story one is going slower than expected, partly because of "oh god, people are reading this" syndrome and partly because my brain is distracting me with stories two and three. Which will hopefully be good for getting those finished in more reasonable time. *sigh* It's also tough to write people who can't trust each other working together. Getting the right balance of distrust and cooperation isn't easy.

The horrible prospect of story-fizzling-halfway-through is looming on my horizon. Must not give in!

Never give up! Never surrender! I'm looking forward to the approaching ScriptFrenzy, not because I have a script I plan to write, but because I hope to harness its intensive writing atmosphere to finish my own current project, which has been sitting lethargically at the 2/3rds mark for a while now. I'm beginning to suspect that I failed to adequately maintain the philosophy of 'who cares if it sucks, I'll fix it in the rewrite' post-November, and I need to stop worrying if the next plot twist is underwhelming and just push through to the big party at which everything will be ruined forever, plus fire.

Tonight is a dedicated Writing Night with a writing comrade, so we'll see how that goes.

I just started The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman, which Goodman refers to as "a Sense and Sensibility for the digital age.” I've liked the other books by Goodman I've read (Intuition and Kaaterskill Falls and 50 pages in I'm enjoying this one too. It is a definite exception to your Conclusion B.

During commuting, rereading The Art and History of Washington D.C. and the less picture-heavy King Lear.

From home, mostly just random Civilization and Europa Universalis III things; have had the 1632 series in mind lately. Not sure which is cause and which is effect, though there could be some sort of psychological timey-wimey-ness going on.

Have also been thinking also thinking of getting back into old school Phantasy Star or Xenogears, preferably in the original. There's enough on my plate iRL, though, that I've reluctantly pushed aside JRPGs (those are text-heavy enough to count, right?) indefinitely. My grammar textbooks have gathered too much dust, anyhow.

Continuing on the tangent from video games for a moment... I rarely think YouTube comments are worth the bother, but I liked this one, regarding the vampire hunter-centered series Castlevania:

"Where's the Belmont bloodline nowadays? We still have the Cullen scum to exterminate!"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dauRYb9il8

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